Here is something I have come across for upper grades. It's called XtraNormal. The students type in what they want the animated characters to say. They can have accents and even move around! I am thinking Grade 3 students and older could use this, but teachers in K-2 could use it to introduce a new concept. I am planning to use this to create a Brain Pop-like movie about families for my Kindergarten classroom (minus Mobi and Annie).
The first time I saw Xtra Normal it was as a birthday card that one of my geekiest friends sent me. I loved it instantly! Why not include the link to Xtra Normal in your post?
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great idea. At one point I thought it was free and then I saw to you had to pay for the video download. HAve you tried it and is there a cost for the download?
ReplyDeleteWow Johnna this is quite a blog! I looks like everything I've learned about in Lesley is here, and more! I have seen the xtra normal before, but have never used it. Did you produce that entire three minute movie? I do a video unit with my classes, but we do have video cameras and editing equipment. Maybe I could use this as a practice piece before getting out the 'real' cameras.
ReplyDelete@Carmin: The link is in the top part of the paragraph. I think my links were gray before (now they are yellow), so it didn't look like a link.
ReplyDelete@Sara: You can make videos for free on the original version, but the edu version is safer for students.
@Kurt: I did not make the movie; I just borrowed it. This is a great way to practice narrating a video as a story map of sorts.
@ Johnna, OH! OK... IMHO, while read blogs I don't necessarily rollover the text, so unless the link is a different color or underlined, I don't notice it. BTW -- it is Yellow only after you visit it. The unvisited link is still the same color as the text -- so it doesn't really look like a link. That's entirely OK though! This is YOUR blog. So have it look anyway you wish. Besides -- it look great as is!
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